


Who Do You Like?

by orphan_account



Category: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Rebuild of Evangelion | Evangelion: New Theatrical Edition
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Asuka and Shinji are childhood friends, Asuka is a tsundere, Bisexual Ikari Shinji, Bisexual Souryuu Asuka Langley, Childhood Trauma, Flashbacks, Fluff, Gay Nagisa Kaworu, Internalized Biphobia, Kaworu and Mari are best friends, Kaworu is Kaworu, Lesbian Makinami Mari Illustrious, Mari is Mari, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rebuild of Evangelion Sequel/Time Loop Theory, Shinji is a tad oblivious, Slice of Life, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-25 23:00:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21364066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Mari and Kaworu tell each other about their crushes; Mari's on Asuka and Kaworu's on Shinji. Mari comes up with the idea to be each other's wingman, with results that could be either perfect or disastrous.
Relationships: Ikari Shinji & Souryuu Asuka Langley, Ikari Shinji/Nagisa Kaworu, Makinami Mari Illustrious & Nagisa Kaworu, Makinami Mari Illustrious/Souryuu Asuka Langley
Comments: 5
Kudos: 37





	1. Who Do You Like?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mari and Kaworu tell one another about their respective crushes.

"So, d'ya like anyone, Kaworu-kun?" Mari cracked open her soda can and slammed it onto the desk, a small drop flying out of the can and onto her exercise book. Kaworu looked behind Mari, at a certain boy with brown hair and pretty blue eyes, who was currently being berated for god knows what by the prettiest girl in the whole grade.  
"I'll tell you who _I_ like, if you tell me who _you_ like!" Mari smirks and takes a swig of her soda.  
"How enticing," Kaworu mutters, causing Mari to pout. Mari swiftly grabs her pencil and gently starts poking Kaworu in the arm.  
"C'mon, Kaworu-kun-"  
"I like Shinji-kun." Kaworu said. Mari immediately drops her pencil and looks at him in awe. She quickly turns her head to look at the aforementioned Shinji. He's quietly eating his lunch while Asuka, the most popular girl in the grade, is shoving one of her tests in his face, that test having an almost perfect score of 99.  
"I can't believe I studied with you!" Asuka yelled.  
"There's nothing even wrong with a score of 99..." Shinji rolled his eyes.  
"Are you stupid, or something?!"  
_'No matter the loop, they're always the same.'_  
Asuka suddenly looked at Mari, and she quickly turned back to Kaworu.  
"I totally called it, though!" Mari stood up and yelled. She picked up her soda can, nearly spilling it all over the desk and floor, and ran out of the classroom.  
"What a weird girl..." Asuka mumbled, her cheeks turning a shade pinker.

"Mari-chan?" Kaworu walks out of the room, hands casually in his pockets. Mari stopped at the end of the hallway, leaning on the broken vending machine. A loud laugh escapes her lips.  
"You should'a seen your face! You looked so embarrassed, your face was so red..." Mari downed the last of her soda and struggled to crush it with her hands.  
"How did you know?"  
"You look at him in class like he's the best damn thing on the whole planet! Whenever he speaks, you look like you're gonna die, right in your chair, right in the middle of him reading a textbook chapter about plate tectonics!" Mari wheezed.  
"Seriously, I'm sorry, Kaworu-kun, but it's so obvio-"  
"Who do you like, then?" Mari stopped laughing.  
"Ah, um..."  
"You said that if I told you who I was interested in, you'd tell me who you were interested in." Mari's eyes dart all over the room, at every single corner, refusing to look at Kaworu.  
"I, um, like...erm..." Mari's voice had completely overhauled from an uproar to barely a whisper. Suddenly, she pushes up the bridge of her glasses.  
"R-Ramen! So, uh, let's go and-"  
"Mari-chan, it's 12pm and we're at school?" A small hint of confusion was in Kaworu's voice. Mari's face goes red.  
"Fine, ya got me, I..." Mari sighs and finally makes eye-contact with Kaworu. "Y'know the fiery, pretty, cute, smart, could kill me, red-haired girl?" Kaworu smiles.  
"Asuka Langley Soryu?" Mari tenses up.  
"Yeah, yeah, her. I like...her," Mari sits down against the vending machine.  
"She's just so...smart. And so, so cool. The way she just yells and complains like the world belongs to her, she's just like a princess!" Mari's voice suddenly went higher. _'She'd look so cute in a crown and gown...'_ Suddenly, the bell rings.  
"We should go." Kaworu held out his hand for Mari, and she took it.  
"Are ya gonna stare some more at Ikari-kun during class...?" She whispered.  
"What?"  
"Oh, it's nothing..." Mari snickered.

"Ikari-kun, could you read paragraph 3 to the class?" Kaji-sensei sat at his desk and stretched. Shinji nodded and stood up. Mari's eyes immediately looked to her best friend next to her. Something Mari had noticed whenever Kaworu was looking at Shinji was that he had a pure adoration in his eyes. He looked at Shinji like he'd known him for a lifetime, and liked him for that long, too. Kaworu gave Shinji his full attention and his red eyes glowed in a way they did for absolutely nothing else. A full-on war could happen right outside their classroom and if Shinji continued reading, he'd still be completely locked on him. Mari soon turned her attention to Asuka, who was staring down at her textbook, with a completely disinterested expression. _'She's so damn pretty.'_

"So, Ikari-kun, eh? How'd you start liking him? Since when?" _'Longer than I could possibly say.'_  
"Since the start of the year. I saw him playing cello, and he seemed so passionate and caught in that moment, he looked beautiful." _'But there's so much more, many more things, than that.'_ Mari playfully punched him in the arm.  
"My, 'passionate'? It was _that_ good? Cute origin, nonetheless," Mari winked.  
"Is it really just that, though? I mean, I suppose Ikari-kun is kinda cute." Mari grinned.  
"When did you start liking Asuka-chan, anyway?" Mari frowned at his dodge of her questions and her face went red.  
"Pretty much the day she first introduced herself. She seemed so outgoing and cool. Like, she didn't care that much about what people really thought about her. I can really...I can really respect that."  
"I see."  
"Also, I totally caught you staring at him again! In history class, like you'd been in love with him your whole damn life!" Mari chuckled. Kaworu badly wished he could tell Mari everything. How long he'd not liked, but _loved_ Shinji. How Shinji loved him too. When they played the piano together, when they kissed, even that one time Shinji confessed to him in the middle of a convenience store. Suddenly, Mari gasped loudly and stopped walking.  
"What if we became each other's wingman?!" Mari exclaimed.  
"What's a 'wingman'? Like...like an angel...?" Mari raised an eyebrow.  
"What? Do you seriously not know what a wingman is? They help their buddy get with the person they like, or whatever!" Mari did somewhat of an example with her fingers. She held up two fingers on her right hand and one on her left.  
"Here's basically what happens," She pops one of the right-hand fingers down.  
"The wingman talks to the person that you're interested in. They help you pursue the person you're interested in. They might talk to them, saying pretty positive stuff about you. Once they've made the person you're into become interested in you," Mari pops the 'wingman' finger down and pops the other one up, and touches the two fingers together.  
"You get with them and win!" Kaworu sighs.  
"Mari-chan, do we even know if Asuka-chan likes girls?" Mari frowns for a moment but perks up again half a second later.  
"And yet you know Ikari-kun is into guys?" _'I do.'_  
"I suppose I don't." Kaworu quietly laughed.  
"It's still worth a shot!" Mari excitedly dashed up her apartment stairs.  
"Tomorrow, at 11am sharp, no earlier, come over here and," Mari proceeds to clap with each syllable.  
"Let's. Do. Some. Plan. Ing!"  
"What sort of planning?" Kaworu enquired.  
"We'll figure it out tomorrow. It'll be fun, we can play video games and eat pizza!" Mari opened her bag, scrambled for her keys for a moment and unlocked her door.  
"If it'll make you happy." Kaworu smiled. Mari jumped and pumped her fist in the air.  
"Yes! See you here at 11!" Mari slammed the door behind her, took her shoes off and flopped face-first onto her bed, making her already messy bed even worse.  
"The princess' gonna be my girlfriend!" Mari giggled into her pillow and excitedly kicked and legs up and down.

Kaworu opened the door to his apartment and sat on his bed. He took one glance at the floor in front of him and flashbacks hit him like a wave.  
_"I used to live with my cello teacher. They were nice and simple days, where I had to do nothing but just...exist. I had nothing important to do."_  
_"Did you hate people?" I turned my head to him, but his eyes were still planted firmly on the ceiling._  
_"Not really. I didn't really care. The only person I truly hate is my father." He finally turns to me, and his face goes a bright shade of red, lighting up the darkness. You're so beautiful. I want to see you smile. I love you._  
_"Maybe I was born to meet you."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi, lol, thanks for reading my bullshit! 
> 
> nonetheless, i wanted to write an au where kaworu and mari were best friends, so, uh, here it is! also i really just wanted to write some asumari and kawoshin, lol
> 
> so, maybe i'll actually write more chapters instead of just writing the first and then completely dropping it! i actually know where to go from the first chapter, so, things should be all good in that regard (for once).
> 
> thank you for reading, once again! any feedback is appreciated, i really want to improve my writing. <3
> 
> twitter: https://twitter.com/asukar0se


	2. Plans, Plans, Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaworu heads over to Mari's apartment to plan ahead for how they can get with their respective crushes.

Waiting for Kaworu, right outside Mari’s front door, was a half-eaten banana, a crushed carton of milk and an empty bag of potato chips. All of them were infested by both flys and ants, hungrily eating away in the bag at what little crumbs that Mari had left behind. Kaworu gracefully stepped over them and gently knocked on the fly screen door. He waited for a whole minute...Nothing.  
“Mari-chan?” He knocked again...Nothing. A small breeze blew the chip bag over, causing a singular, inconsiderable potato chip to fall out onto the welcome mat.  
“It’s 11am, just as you asked of me!” Kaworu knocked harder. A dishevelled Mari almost immediately opened the door and yawned.  
“Kaworu-kun? What are ya here for, it’s so early...”  
“You said that you wanted me to get here at 11am sharp.” Kaworu scratched his head, briefly questioning if he was the one who made a mistake.  
“Oh, right!” Mari sighed. “Sorry, completely forgot. Come in,” Mari gestured with her hands and Kaworu followed her inside.

Mari’s apartment was much..._less orderly_ than Kaworu’s. Her school uniform was scrunched in a heap on the floor, unwashed dishes from at least two dinners ago littered the kitchen sink and a fallen stack of video games lay next to the TV on the floor.  
“Take a look at this,” Mari pulled a whiteboard on wheels from in front of her bed. On the left side of the whiteboard, is Shinji’s jaggedly cut out picture from last years school yearbook. On the right side are about twenty pictures of Asuka, nearly all of them from her various drama performances. One of them is signed ‘Asuka Langley Soryu~♡’.  
“There are three events over this year that can make or break our chances,” Mari flicked through a small green journal. “The first one is the music recital.”  
“Is that where we play Lilin music?” Kaworu’s face lights up.  
“I’m still confused as to what a Lillin is but, yeah, it is?!” Mari laughs. “Seriously, what actually even is a Lillin?”  
“It’s simply just another word for humankind.” Kaworu smiles and sits on the arm of Mari’s soda stained couch. Mari rolls her eyes and smiles.  
“You’re so weird! This is why you’re my best friend,” Mari padded over to her freezer and pulls out an almost flat box. “Want some pizza? It’s ham, and, uh, cheese? I think?” Mari rips open the box and carelessly drops the cardboard on the floor.  
“I’ve never tried pizza, I’d love to.”  
_‘How unsurprising...’ _Mari shakes her head and grabs a baking tray, places the frozen pizza on it and shoves it in the oven. She quickly dashes back to the whiteboard.  
“Another pretty important event is the culture festival at the end of the year. Soryu-chan will put on a show in her drama club and Ikari-kun will play the cello in the school band.” Admittedly, Kaworu doesn’t believe he needs this. He’s seen Shinji go through every emotion, or ‘Lilinmotion’, as he calls it. Whether it be happiness, sadness, anger, confusion, fear, love, hatred, he’s seen it all. _‘I know Shinji-kun like the back of my hand. Though I desire to help Mari-chan...’_  
“Kaworu-kun!”  
_‘Asuka-chan, like Shinji-kun, is complicated. I know more than enough about Asuka-chan to help her.’_  
_“_Kaworu-kun, are you even listening?” Mari gently poked his arm with a green whiteboard maker, leaving small green marks on his pale skin.  
“Of course. Let me tell you about Asuka-chan,” Kaworu stands and grabs a pink whiteboard marker.

“You see, Asuka-chan, is what I believe is called an extrovert. She likes being around people, but deep down, she’s actually quite insecure. Failure of any sort will cause her to crumble to nothingness.” Once he finished writing, Kaworu looked at Mari, and her jaw was practically on the floor.  
“How...How do you know all that?”  
_‘Ah. Did I say too much?’_  
“I’m only just guessing. She also-“ _‘I should stop, shouldn’t I?’_ “—Doesn’t know how to express her love for others properly. She’s in a constant state of emotional pain, pushing away the ones she-“  
“My god, Kaworu-kun!” Mari looked completely bewildered, borderline disturbed.  
_‘I see, I went too far.’_ Mari suddenly perks up again.  
“I-I just remembered something! There’s an excursion to the Izu Peninsula in September. It’s a hot springs hotspot!” Mari winks and dons a cat-like smile.  
“Hot springs?” Kaworu cocks his head to one side like a confused little puppy dog.  
“Y’know, the _public baths-“_

_ Suddenly, the lights go out._   
_“I guess time is up.”_   
_“It’s over?” I don’t understand why._   
_“We have to go to bed.” Don’t humans go to bed with the ones they love?_   
_“With me?”_   
_“N-no, I, um, they, you have your own room, different t-to mine!” His face has gone bright red, even in the bath’s darkness...He seems so confused. I don't think I understand humans well enough just yet._   
_“Humans always feel pain in their hearts. Humanity is easily hurt, and it makes living all the more painful...You, Shinji-kun, your heart is as delicate as glass.” Humanity is especially odd._   
_“Me?” He’s wonderful._   
_“You’re worthy of love.”_   
_“Love...?”_   
_“What I mean, is that I love you.” _

“Ah, those, I see.” Kaworu looked down at the floor.  
“The biggest thing we have to plan is how we even figure out how to talk to them in the first place. I mean, Ikari-kun’s an introvert and he’ll probably be a bit nervous talking to you and Soryu-chan’s a huge princess,” Mari kicked the whiteboard back in front of her bed.  
“We can probably figure that stuff out ourselves...” Mari turned on her TV and gaming console.  
“I’m sure it’ll work out for the both of us.” Kaworu gently smiled and Mari nodded.  
“Wait.” Mari froze.  
“Hm?”  
“...I think I forgot to turn the oven on.” Mari fell on her knees and groaned in annoyance.

“See ya, Kaworu-kun!” Kaworu sweetly smiled and waved goodbye back. Mari closed her front door and the lights went out soon after. Kaworu had been there for at least 12 hours, endlessly playing video games and eating trashy food. The same music played on a loop, a clashing mixture of Mari’s k-pop and j-pop and Kaworu’s favourite Beethoven and Bach. Kaworu looked up at the night sky, the moon and street lights illuminating the footpath ahead. He could almost swear that he’d been through almost as many loops as there are stars in the sky.  
_‘I swear, I’ll bring you happiness, this time.’_ A promise he’d made to both himself and Shinji all too many times.  
“A kinder future finally smiles down on the both of us.” Kaworu continued walking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! thanks for reading. any feedback is appreciated, i'm always looking to improve my writing. 
> 
> i decided to delete most of the tags because there were definitely way too many lmao
> 
> twitter: https://twitter.com/asukar0se


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